Contrasting Southside Bancshares (NYSE:SBSI) and ACNB (NASDAQ:ACNB)

ACNB (NASDAQ:ACNB) and Southside Bancshares (NYSE:SBSI) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, valuation, dividends, risk, profitability, earnings and institutional ownership.

Profitability

This table compares ACNB and Southside Bancshares’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
ACNB	19.32%	12.77%	1.55%
Southside Bancshares	15.61%	10.72%	1.06%

Institutional and Insider Ownership

32.4% of ACNB shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 55.7% of Southside Bancshares shares are owned by institutional investors. 3.5% of ACNB shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 6.0% of Southside Bancshares shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Risk and Volatility

ACNB has a beta of 0.87, indicating that its stock price is 13% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Southside Bancshares has a beta of 0.64, indicating that its stock price is 36% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for ACNB and Southside Bancshares, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
ACNB	0	1	2	1	3.00
Southside Bancshares	0	1	0	0	2.00

ACNB presently has a consensus target price of $48.67, suggesting a potential downside of 7.64%. Given ACNB’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts clearly believe ACNB is more favorable than Southside Bancshares.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares ACNB and Southside Bancshares”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
ACNB	$191.82 million	2.85	$37.05 million	$3.54	14.88
Southside Bancshares	$419.03 million	2.37	$69.22 million	$2.29	14.41

Southside Bancshares has higher revenue and earnings than ACNB. Southside Bancshares is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than ACNB, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Dividends

ACNB pays an annual dividend of $1.52 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.9%. Southside Bancshares pays an annual dividend of $1.44 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.4%. ACNB pays out 42.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Southside Bancshares pays out 62.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. ACNB has raised its dividend for 8 consecutive years and Southside Bancshares has raised its dividend for 30 consecutive years. Southside Bancshares is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Summary

ACNB beats Southside Bancshares on 12 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.

About ACNB

ACNB Corporation, a financial holding company, offers banking, insurance, and financial services to individual, business, and government customers in the United States. The company provides checking, savings, and money market deposit accounts, as well as time deposits and debit cards. It also offers commercial lending products, such as commercial mortgages, real estate development and construction loans, accounts receivable and inventory financing, and agricultural and governmental loans; consumer lending products, including home equity loans and lines of credit, automobile and recreational vehicle loans, manufactured housing loans, and personal lines of credit; and mortgage lending programs include personal residential mortgages, and residential construction and investment mortgage loans. In addition, the company provides other services that are related to testamentary trusts, life insurance trusts, charitable remainder trusts, guardianships, powers of attorney, custodial accounts, and investment management and advisory accounts; and retail brokerage services. Further, it acts as a trustee to invest in, protect, manage, and distribute financial assets. Additionally, the company offers property and casualty, health, life, and disability insurance products to commercial and personal clients; and online, telephone, and mobile banking, as well as automated teller machine services. ACNB Corporation was founded in 1857 and is headquartered in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

About Southside Bancshares

Southside Bancshares, Inc. operates as the bank holding company for Southside Bank that provides a range of financial services to individuals, businesses, municipal entities, and nonprofit organizations. Its deposit products include savings, money market, and interest and noninterest bearing checking accounts, as well as certificates of deposit. The company’s loan portfolio comprises consumer loans that include 1-4 family residential loans, home equity loans, home improvement loans, automobile loans, and other consumer related loans; commercial loans, such as short-term working capital loans for inventory and accounts receivable, short and medium-term loans for equipment or other business capital expansion, commercial real estate loans, and municipal loans; and construction loans for 1-4 family residential and commercial real estate. It also offers wealth management and trust services consisting of investment management, administration, revocable and testamentary trusts, and custodian services for individuals, partnerships, and corporations; safe deposit services; and brokerage services. As of December 31, 2021, the company operated through 56 banking facilities and 73 ATMs/ITMs. Southside Bancshares, Inc. was founded in 1960 and is headquartered in Tyler, Texas.